Wheel for vehicles.



PATENTED. MAY 28, 190? R, T. swim, JR WHEEL FOR VEHICLES.

APPLICATION FILED $EIT. 6, 1906.

' 3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

r ESSES PATENTED MAY 28. 1907.

- I R. T. SMITH, JR.

WHEEL FOR VEHICLES. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 6, 1906,

3 SHEETSSHEBT 2.

No. 854,914. J'AIENTED MAY 28, 1907 B3 1".sM1TH,JR,

WHEEL FOR VEHICLES.

APPLIGATION FILED SEPT. 6, 1908,

ssnnms amn'w a.

. 1. Fig. c is a similar view to Fig. 5, but

.11 tire and wheel for use with niotorcars and which gradually assumes a circular form he ROBERT 'lHOMAS sni'rn, JR., or WARRINGTON, ENGLAND.

WHEEL FOR Specification of am; Patent.

'vgEnrorEs.

Patented. may 28, 1907.

Application filed e amt'er 6,190 6. Serial No. 333,488.

To a]! Iii/MUM it mwtg coir/(tern:

Be it kn'owrr that l, ltonnn'r THOMAS Siri'rn, Junior, n subject of the King ofGreat, Britain and Ireland, residing at Ill-Lovely lianc, l'varrington. in the county Palatine of j Lancaster, England, have invented new and useful linprovclnents in Wheels for Vehicles, i of which the following is a specification. My invention has for its objert to produce l other vehicles whereby ewnoniyol. construe tion, good. resiliency, and an :ulvztnt'z'igrous distributimi of shock and conservation of energy may be attained and that without lids bility to puncture; and, in addition to thesol :ulvantngcs when my invention usedfor-f vehicle wheels l believe thata deallol" trouble,

will be saved to the usersbecmrse there will. not be so many spare parts to ('nrrvnhout.

1. will describe the nature of this invention 5 in [he lirst place as applirhbleto the wheelol. a motor can, but i wish it to be uin'lerstood that the details oi jll' in \"e| ition 1nay beva ried a little. it may also be used-for wagons, or when made much lighter iorcYcle-s.

in the drawings':- li :urej 1 is a yction through such parts cl a wheel. constructed in"; accordnncv with my im'e'nlion as. suflice to clearly explain it. Fig. is an end elevation of Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a portion of Fig. 2, and hows half nwheel. J Fig. 4 is a plan View of a. iortion of Fig. In this figure a portion or the cover plate hereafter described broken away to allow the interior to be seen. Fig. 5 is an enlarged view of the bottom left hand portion of Fig.

showing a. modification. Fig. 7 is a detail view of the bottom. left hand portion of Fig. 1 showing a modification and Fig. 8'is a sectional plan of Fig. 7 as on the line I Referring first more particularly no-Figs. 1 to 5. The wheel which has two distinct tires or treads is built up of two internal-radially corrugateddisks of metal A, andtwo external annular plates of metal. B, the latter {oi which are preferably dished-but plain, that is, not corrugated. Ecchpiece A,is preferably made by PIQSSISBg o1 roll1ng afiat strip cause the corrugations are deep at one end (A and die away to nothing as at A near the periphery The adjacent ends of the annulus thus fOIlllGLl'OVGIlZtP a little and are riveted and brazed together. These two corrugated disks A, are fastened to each screwed toward each other as .iscribed.

other a t the hub end by ineans of a sleeve C, and they are also riveted together and brazed near their peripheries as slwwn at A A, of Fig. 1.

The peripheral portions of the disks A, are spun, .or pressed to form circumferential half rims or channels D, and the opposite parts of the. )lates B arecorres ondin ly sha ed as shown a t- E,.so that the treads of, the wheels may be gripped between the adjacent circiuni'erential-channels when the plates B, are

' hereafter de- The trend or the actual tire of the wheel is made up of a series of blocks F, of rubber or .oth'ersuitable material. The shape I prefer is. that shown in Figs. 1 to 5, that is to say in cross. section they show three equidistant ribs the exterior contour of each ofwhich forms a portion of a circle. Inlay in some cases modify their section a little for instance as shown in Fig. 6.

The blocks F, when first made are not curved but straight so that when they are put in place between the channels I) and E, they are curved thereby and their adjacent ends spring apart thus forming a series of wedged .shaped orifices S (see Fu s.

2 and 3) and these serve to minimize side slip or skidding on the road and they also enhance the resiliency of the-tire. The orifices on one side of the wheel alternate with those on the other so connected crosswise by other thinner cross wires Hwhich thus prevent the wires G, of each tread from splaying. 1 These cross wires I]. lit between the adjacent ends of the blocks of rubber Whe'nthe parts are assembled.

It should be unde treadsto each wheel. v v 4 v i In practice and asshown one of the ribs 011 each tread forms the actual tread in use, and the other two of them are gripped by the channels I E, D, E, as above described but .1' Wish'to make it clear that anyone, of these salient parts may be used forthe tread, the

being gripped as other two for the time being above described.

In the example shown in the draw s the wheel and its 3 I rstood that there are two aft revolve togetheran said wheel may be used as a driving wheel. Should it be desired to let the wheel run loose on the shaft the modifications are so obvious and various as to require no explanation to am one skilled in the art to which my invention appertains.

l is the shaft or axle and J is a bush surrounding it, and said bush is prevented from turning on. shaft I by reason of having a squared part K. (see Figs, 1 & 4) and L is a lo'cknut to keep the parts I and J relatively rigid though they might in some cases be made in one piece.

is a sleeve screwed on to the bush J, and it is to this sleeve that the bunched ends A{ of the disks A are allixed, preferably by casting said-sleeve on to them after they have been formed. 7

N are set screws or pins inserted after the sleeve M has been placed in its proper posi- 011 each end of the sleeve C, is a threaded nose 0, and these noses form bolts and serve to carry two bosses or tapered nuts P, P, and

tached to the outer plates B, are rings P,

preferably of very hard steel, so made that the fiber runs circumferentially for the sake of strength. The bosses P, and rings P form a sort of limited ball and socket joint and a very slight relative movement is caused when the tread is compressed and the bottom edges E, of the plates B, are thereby splayed a little apart. At the same time the top parts of the plates B, come together a little, thus distributing the strain.

Referring now more particularly to Figs. 7 i

and S. In this mourn ation in addition to the wires G and H above mentioned I provide a circumferential wire T and this is threaded alternately within and without the rim (like plain stitching) there being a cross length bridging a portion of thechannel A, between each pair of circumferentiallengths. Thus T,shows the circumferential lengths and U the bridging lengths. The wire is threaded through holes V in the rim and alternately through holes W in lugs. X unched out of the metal of the rim A. The ridging lengthsof wire U fit between the ends of the blocks F, 85 thus help to retain them inplace rircumfcrentially and to prevent them creep- 111".

it is to be understood that should one face of a block F, get'worn or cut it is only necessary to slack away one of the outer plates B, so as to gain access to the interior of the wheel when the damaged block can be removed and turned one third round thusmposing anot her rib to the outside. In the same way new blocks are readily inserted. 1

The mode of action is as follows?lrw suming the wheel to be in use on a lnoior car, when the tread strikes against an obstacle or even in ordinary running on smooth ground the rubber F, is pushed inward and the ell'ert of this is to spread apart (to a greater ol lesser'degree according to the pressure) the. two outer channel shaped portions ll, at its lowest part thus bringing together in a gradual manner the upper portions and causing a compression of the rubber all round and dis tributing the strain and pressure. 1 iind that after compression has taken place the rebound helps to conserve energy which has hitherto in many cases been wasted and that the combination of the rubber tire as above described with the somewhat elastic and springy plates gives advantages not heretofore achieved.

It will be seen that when one of the salient ribs is compressed by the load it tends to splay the two other ribs of the same block and these in turn press against the adjacent block at the other side of the rim so that the pressure which may be extreme at the exact point of the contact of the block with an obstacle (such for instance a stone or a curbstone edge) is in'n'nediately taken up and distributed laterally and also longitudinally. The stiff elasticity of the plates A, A, does much to enhance this action.

Should it happen that one tread only (instead of both) is called on to take up the whole load or shock of its wheel I make the parts sufficiently strong to withstand this.

It should be understood as an important feature of my invention that except for the local distortion of the blocks actually in coutact with the ground in a vertical direction, that is to say, that part of the distortion that takes place toward the shaft, all the other compression or distortion is lateral and the vertical distance of the shaft from the ground varies very little and is not by any means commensurate with the amount of cushioning effect. This is an advantage because the more nearly. the circular shape of the wheel is retained the better.

What I do claim as my invention and desire to secureby Letters Patent is:

1. In a wheel for vehicles the combination of a pair of radially corrugated plates each having near its peri hery a channel to cmbrace one side of arub or tire and outer plates having corresponding channels to grip the other sides and means for holding and tightening the parts substantially described.

2. In a wheel for vehicles the combination with a pair of radially corrugated plates each outer plates having correspondingchannels,

ofa tire portion havin three ribs or treads, anyone of which may he used as the actual tread interchangeably With the others, substantially as set forth.

3., A Wheel for vehicles having two inside corrugated plates, two outer-plates and two sets of rubber blocks grippedbe-tween them in such manner that the compression of anyone of these blocks vertically compresses the others, substantially as described.

4. In a Wheel for vehicles the combination with the co rugated plates A, outer plates B and the rubber tire, of wires Grand H, sub- 15 stantially as set forth.

5. The combination with wires G and H, of Wires T and U, threaded through holes V in the rim of the wheel and alternately through holes W in lugs thereon, substantially as and 20 for the purposes described. In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ROBERT THOMAS SMITH JUNIOR. Witnesses:

CHAS. COVENTRY, J. STEVENS. 

